1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate to facilitating power production units in a power group to store power for power conditioning during an anticipated temporary power production disruption.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional power distribution systems rely upon a small group of centralized commercial power utilities (e.g., coal-fired power plants, nuclear power plants, centralized renewable facilities such as commercial solar plants or commercial wind farms, etc.) producing power that is fed into a power grid and distributed to power consuming units or loads (e.g., homes, offices, etc.) throughout a wide serving area of a power grid system.
Increasingly, distributed power production units are being deployed in power grid systems. For example, photovoltaic or solar panels can be mounted onto a roof of a residential home or office building and then tied to the power grid so that the home or office building becomes a new power producer instead of (or in addition to being) a consumer. In another example, wind farms (i.e., groups of wind turbines) can also be tied into the grid as a net power producer.
Older power grid system had no mechanism by which operators of distributed power production units could be compensated for the power that they supported to the power grid system. However, some newer power grid systems in certain municipalities implement a relatively simple crediting system referred to as “net metering”. In a net metering system, the amount of net power supplied to the power grid system for a particular power production unit is monitored and a fixed pre-negotiated net metering rate is credited to the operator of the power production unit. However, conventional net metering is not based on the actual real-time power demands of the power grid system. For example, under conventional net metering, an operator of a solar power production unit which provides most of its power during the day when capacity of the power grid system is strained is compensated at the same rate as an operator of a windmill that produces power at night during off-peak hours. Further, some commercial power utilities are now considering charging operators of distributed power production units participation fees associated with the net metering crediting mechanism.
Accordingly, at present, there is no apparent mechanism by which individual operators of distributed power production units are incentivized to produce power when power demand in proximity to the distributed power production units is high or to establish oversized distributed power production beyond their own consumption needs.